Strong v. Thurston County

• Citation: 120 N.W. 922,84 Neb. 86
• Decision Date: 13 April 1909
• Docket Number: 15,588
• Parties: R. G. STRONG, APPELLEE, v. THURSTON COUNTY, APPELLANT
• Court: Nebraska Supreme Court

120 N.W. 922

84 Neb. 86

R. G. STRONG, APPELLEE, v. THURSTON COUNTY, APPELLANT

No. 15,588

Supreme Court of Nebraska

April 13, 1909

APPEAL from the district court for Thurston county: GUY T. GRAVES JUDGE. Affirmed.

AFFIRMED.

Hiram Chase and Howard Saxton, for appellant.

R. G Strong and J. M. Curry, contra.

OPINION

ROSE, J.

This is a suit by a former county attorney of Thurston county to recover salary and office rent. His claims were duly allowed by the county board, but have not been paid, and warrants on the county treasurer to pay them have never been issued. The action is based on the allowed claims. It will only be necessary to discuss two questions raised by the answer. They are as follows: (1) An original action to recover judgment against a county on claims allowed by the county board cannot be maintained. (2) Recovery on plaintiff's cause of action is defeated by estoppel. To these and other technical defenses pleaded in the answer, plaintiff filed a demurrer which was sustained. Defendant refused to plead further, and judgment was rendered in favor of plaintiff for $ 701.95. Defendant appeals.

1. Defendant argues that authority to sue a county in the district court on allowed claims has not been granted by statute, and does not exist. It is also argued that orders of a county board in allowing claims are equivalent to judgments, are final, when not questioned by appeal, and that matters involved therein cannot be relitigated in an original action in the district court. These propositions are earnestly presented, but the doctrines invoked are at variance with former holdings of this court. The owner of a valid claim against a county has statutory authority to bring suit thereon in any court of competent jurisdiction, where he is not required to present it to the county board in the first instance. Comp. St. 1907, ch. 18, art. I, sec. 20; Ayres v. Thurston County, 63 Neb. 96, 88 N.W. 178. In the present case plaintiff was not required to present his allowed claims to the county board. They had already been presented and allowed, and under the statute cited, he had authority to bring in the district court an original suit thereon. He could not appeal from the county board, because the orders were entered in his favor for the full amount of his claims. A county board which exhausts current funds, allows a claim in full, fails to issue a warrant therefor, and refuses to pay the claim cannot by that means close the doors of the courts against the claimant and prevent him from recovering a judgment for the amount due. A county may be sued on an unpaid county warrant. Ayres v. Thurston County, 63 Neb. 96, 88 N.W. 178; Thurston County v. McIntyre, 75 Neb. 335, 106 N.W. 217. The right to maintain a suit on an unpaid claim allowed by the county board rests on the same ground and is conferred by the statute cited. It would not change the result to regard the allowed claims as judgments, since in this state an action may be maintained on a domestic judgment. Eldredge v. Aultman, Miller & Co., 35 Neb. 884, 53 N.W. 1008. The district court...